Champion Sneak Peek: Ao Shin

By Feanor - 8th September 2013 - 07:21 AM

As the League of Legends community expands and grows around the world, so too do our influences and inspirations for the game. We thought it would be fun to give you guys a very early peek at one of the champions we're working on while he's still in the early stages. Meet Ao Shin, a powerful storm dragon and guardian of the natural world. Legend holds that when Ionia faces its greatest crisis, Ao Shin will descend from the sky.

Let's start with the inspiration for his name: Ao is the family name of the mythological dragon kings, who rule water and weather. This tells us right away that this is a powerful, elegant being, above the concerns and rules of men. Shin can mean many things, one of which is prosperity. It also means a rising storm. Ao Shin embodies this elemental duality, capable of raining good fortune on his allies and, in the very next breath, bringing stormy, thunderous ruin upon his foes.

The community's been asking for a dragon champion for some time, but we knew we couldn't just do any dragon. With each new champ, we try and push the limits of what's technically and creatively possible. Ao Shin is no different. One of the challenges we're looking forward to tackling is how to capture his unique anatomy and movement in a way that brings a new dimension to the champion pool. It's too early to go into much detail, but we're really excited about the ways this champion will move across the battlefield.

Ao Shin isn't the next champion scheduled to come out, so he's still a ways off and many things are still subject to change. But we wanted to share our inspiration with you and give you a look at the early thought processes that go into champ design. Hopefully you're as excited about his potential as we are to keep working on him!